I staggered, feeling a strange familiarity with this place.

  The dense, filthy air seeped into my lungs, each breath saturated with humidity and decay. The neon lights flickered, casting chaotic shadows on the grimy walls, covered in cheap graffiti and layers of accumulated dirt.

  "Where am I...?"

  And then I saw him.

  I saw myself. Same features, same build. But… it wasn't me. Something was wrong. Very wrong.

  —Finally, the goddess did something useful for me.

  My other self spoke those words with a bitter smile. But… how?

  The world suddenly shrank. Darkness engulfed me, swallowing me into its abyss. My heart pounded with an unbearable weight, and my body was pulled by an invisible force.

  It was me… but at the same time, it wasn't.

  I tried to move. I couldn't. My muscles wouldn't respond. My will didn't exist.

  I was just a spectator… a mannequin watching my reflection act.

  And then, I remembered.

  That night. That kidnapping. That girl…

  The scene changed.

  As if a perverse energy had created a vortex in my present, dragging me along without giving me a choice, without letting me refuse, forcing me to witness this macabre spectacle.

  The vision before my eyes was different… dystopian and distorted.

  Me… attacking a soldier.

  "What…? Wasn't my clone the one who did this?!"

  —What the hell is going on?

  I saw myself, being interrogated, labeled as a wanderer. But I couldn't act. I couldn't move. Something was pulling me with an indescribable force.

  And then, against my will, my arms moved on their own.

  They took hold of that girl.

  Before my mind could react, my legs had already taken the first step. My body followed a foreign command.

  I tried to scream, but my mouth only let out the gasp of a prisoner trapped in his own cage. Someone… or something was controlling me.

  Like a puppet…

  Heat suddenly coursed through my body. A wave of fire that, at the same time, froze me to the bone.

  Something hot… The air passing through me… I felt lighter.

  Then I looked down.

  The girl in my arms… was no longer there.

  I… wasn't there either.

  I dissolved into a pool of blood. I dissolved into my own fluids.

  I could see it. That void.

  Where my chest should have been… there was nothing.

  When I noticed it, I didn't even feel pain. No remorse. I wanted to say something, but all I could do was stare at that emptiness within me…

  No skin. No flesh. No bone.

  Just a dark, deep… bottomless hole.

  ---

  I woke up frantically, drenched in sweat.

  "What was that dream…?"

  It didn't matter. I needed air.

  I got out of bed heavily. The pain in my body, the weight in my chest, the drilling in my mind… had disappeared.

  As if they had never existed.

  I opened the door to my room.

  I just wanted to breathe.

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  The lights flickered frantically. My head began to spin. The air grew dense. A chill ran down my spine, the skin on my arms prickled…

  Something was there.

  I felt its presence before I saw it.

  And then… I noticed that bizarre being.

  That figure on the ceiling wore a snow-white shirt along with those blue pants. I remembered… "My school uniform…"*

  It was me, up there. Or something that pretended to be.

  Blood dripped in slow droplets, each one hitting the floor.

  When I looked at its face, I recognized it instantly.

  It was no one else but me on the ceiling… or so it appeared to be.

  Blood started pouring from its body. The lights flickered, and with each flash, I could see it… that hole in its chest bled, vanished, and returned… It existed and disappeared in the vastness of light and darkness.

  Or so it seemed…

  Walking… upside down.

  With that same hole in the chest.

  Drenched in its own blood. Or should I say in mine…?

  I don't even understand who I am or what it is.

  The heaviness in my heart consumed me. I couldn't react. I just screamed.

  I screamed as loud as I could.

  Not out of fear.

  I felt something consuming my being.

  That hole… It wasn't just something physical in it.

  I could feel it even if it wasn't mine…

  Something in me…

  "What is that? Why do I have a hole? Why am I there?!"

  Thousands of questions spiraled through my mind.

  That thing… Myself…

  It stammered something…

  —Why… why… did you discard me…?

  I wanted to respond, but nothing came out.

  I blinked.

  And in an instant, it was right in front of me.

  It had no eyes. Only dark vortexes.

  Endless pits.

  They weren't looking at my soul… They were devouring it.

  With each second that passed staring at it… My being faded away.

  I tried to run… and then I felt it.

  The metallic weight on my body. The cold of the metal clinging to my skin, to my insides… connecting me to every cable.

  I didn't know when I had put it on, but there it was.

  "My silver armor."

  "That's good… I needed you."

  But when it appeared, everything changed.

  That hallway became more erratic.

  The walls whispered something. At first, I thought they were just random noises, but soon I understood… they were repeating a number.

  Over and over again.

  "T34."

  My visor only gave me one alert: "Enemies. Enemies."

  I only thought about escaping through that door I could see in the distance, but the more I tried, the more eternal the path seemed.

  My metallic footsteps, combined with the blood, sounded like a withered symphony…

  The same sound I heard in each of my battles… Each of my massacres.

  That cursed pool of blood wouldn't leave me.

  The hallway turned red again, as if I were trapped in an endless cycle.

  I wanted to run. I wanted to beg for help.

  But I was alone.

  Alone with those flickering lights.

  I tried to think of my family, of the empire, of everything I cherished..

  I screamed without hesitation.

  It didn't matter that my lungs were better, that my body was "enhanced."

  My voice still wasn't enough.

  No one heard me.

  They never did.

  I was still powerless against this.*

  My body had changed.

  I hadn't.

  No matter how much I thought.

  The situation didn't change.

  That thing was frantically approaching me.

  I no longer know what is real.

  I kept stumbling more and more…

  In that enormous puddle.

  Blood splattered onto my armor, staining the beautiful silver into scarlet.

  …

  I woke up. But the feeling was still there.

  It faded into the vortex of my mind.

  I breathed erratically, hoping the tension in my body would disappear.

  But nothing seemed to stop the involuntary reactions.

  Not even this armor I was wearing.

  Even these foolish medications couldn't stop my frantic heartbeat.

  "It's fine… maybe I just need a bath… Yeah, I'll do that."

  I tried to get up from the bed, but my legs had no strength.

  Only the exoskeleton of the armor kept me standing.

  I walked.

  Even though the floor was firm, I felt like I was in that dream.

  An unstable surface.

  I tried to move forward, but I staggered.

  The unstable one was me.

  When I thought I would sink again into that uncertain ground, I managed to hold onto the bathroom walls.

  My hands clung tightly to the edge of the wall.

  I needed to hold onto something so I wouldn't collapse.

  The water…

  It really is nice.

  "Ahh… how pleasant this is… I can finally relax."

  I closed my eyes and enjoyed the water.

  I wanted to wash away the blood running down my hands, the filth of my memories, and how disgusting I looked.

  Even though my body was somewhat numb now, due to this artificial skin, I could still enjoy some of life's pleasures.

  When I thought everything was over, I wanted to appreciate my reflection in the bathtub's glass doors.

  For a second, I saw it… that hollow in my chest.

  My reflection stared back at me, but its eyes weren't mine.

  Something inside him—or inside me—was broken.

  "I'm hallucinating."